Apparatus are known for mechanically processing food stuffs. The mechanical processing of a food stuff includes the operation of slicing, chopping, cutting, dicing, mincing, shredding, crushing or grating. Such an apparatus generally forms part of a food processor for use as a domestic appliance and includes a container to which the apparatus is mounted to receive a processed food stuff, and a base unit on which the container and apparatus are removably disposed. A drive unit is disposed in the base unit to drive the apparatus.
One such apparatus for processing a food stuff is a dicing unit which cuts a food stuff into cubes. Such an apparatus is disclosed in DE 10 2008 040 937 and comprises a housing with a stationary cutting die having knives arranged in a grid fixedly mounted to the housing, and a diametrically extending cutting blade extending between diametrically opposing sides of an outer support ring which is rotatably mounted in the housing by clips. The stationary cutting die is disposed perpendicular to the rotational axis of the cutting tool so that the cutting blade moves twice per rotation over the stationary cutting die parallel to, but spaced from, the die as the cutting tool is rotated to slice a food stuff disposed between the rotating blade and the stationary die. A wedge element is mounted along the cutting blade which urges a food stuff cut by the cutting blade against and through the stationary cutting die so that the food stuff is diced.
However, disadvantages of this arrangement include a difficulty to manufacture and a complicated assembly procedure in which a plurality of clips are needed to be maneuvered into position to secure the cutting blade. Furthermore, it is necessary to support the cutting blade in a outer support ring to prevent the blade from deflecting and bending as it rotates due to the axial forces applied by the cut food stuff in the gap between the cutting die and the cutting blade
Another configuration attempts to prevent the blade from bending and deflecting by mounting the cutting blade in a solid disc mounted to a rotational shaft. The disc is rotated by the shaft and deflection of the cutting blade is along its length is reduced. Furthermore, the shaft and disc are prevented from moving in an axial direction by thrust bearings acting on the shaft. However, such an arrangement is difficult to manufacture, requires expensive components, and a high torque is required to rotate the heavy disc.